Tag Archives: german

Candy cone


Background: Informant is a 51 year old Israeli American. They grew up in Germany for the first seven years of their life, which is where this tradition took place. They are talking about their first day of school in Germany, describing a tradition that’s done there. 

Informant: On the first day of school, kids’ parents buy them this big cone like in the size of a typical kindergartener. Like, early grade, like first grade of school. It was done on the first day of school. They will fill it with lots and lots of candies and snacks and they close it and that’s how you go to school and you take a picture with it and everyone had a cone. 

Reflection: I loved hearing about this tradition as we don’t have it in America at all. When doing research, I saw how present this tradition is in Germany and how integral it is to kid’s culture there. It represnts the modern creation of childhood and how it operates in the West. We do these things in Western culture to celebrate kids milestones, and this is a largely recent form of folklore; kid’s folklore.

“Du gehst mir auf den Keks”

Nationality: American/German
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/20/2022
Primary Language: English
Language: German

Translation: you’re getting on my cookie

The informant is the daughter of 2 German immigrants. She was born in Germany, lived in France when she was young for a bit, and grew up in the US. She is now a college student.

A: The direct translation of “Du gehst mir auf den Keks” is like, “you’re getting on my cookie”, which obviously doesn’t really make sense in English but it actually just means like, “you’re getting on my nerves” or like “driving me crazy”… my parents used to say this to me all the time because I was a really annoying kid haha.

Me: why does it mean cookie…?

A: I mean, I’m not super sure….I feel like food is used in a lot of German insults I guess? It’s just something parents will say to their kids a lot ‘cause it’s like…a lighthearted way of telling someone they’re annoying. Like no one would say that if they were actually super mad so it’s like a kind of subtly funny-ish way of telling your kid they’re annoying you. 

Context: This was told to me during a recorded in person conversation.

No Early Birthday Wishes in Germany

Nationality: German/American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/20/2022
Primary Language: English
Language: German

The informant is the daughter of two German immigrants. She was born in Germany, spent time in France, and grew up in the US. She is a college student.

Informant: In Germany it’s a big no-no to say happy birthday to people early or celebrate early or anything. If you do that it’s supposed to like… give them a year of bad luck so we just…don’t do that. And if you do that to someone else they definitely won’t be happy.

Me: Ohh my god I definitely wished you a happy early birthday this year several times 

Informant: Haha it’s okay it doesn’t really matter. Oh also, for my birthday this year I wanted to come home the day before my birthday to see my parents and ‘cause they wanted to give me a gift too but they were like, “No that’s bad”. So I ended up driving home a few days after my birthday because they’d rather celebrate it late than early.

Context: This was told to me during a recorded in person conversation.

Schültute

Nationality: American/German
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/20/2022
Primary Language: English
Language: German

The informant (A) is the daughter of two German immigrants. She was born in Germany, spent time in France, and grew up in the US.

A: So Schültute is this like, big plastic cone-shaped thing that parents give their children on their first day of school..or like first grade and they’d put random stuff like candy and school supplies….just like anything that kids like. I think it’s meant to just make the transition to going to school and the first day like, less scary and it gives you something to look forward to and it makes the first day of school fun and like exciting. On a personal note I went to German school for one year – which was first grade – and my parents gave me one and it was pretty fun. Oh, also they’ll give you this like, backpack… it’s called a “ranzen” and it’s like square shaped and kind of funny looking but mine was like pink and I think it had unicorns on it, it was pretty dope.

Context: This was told to me during a recorded in person conversation.

Coffee and Cake (Kaffee und Kuchen)

Nationality: American/German
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/20/2022
Primary Language: English
Language: German

The informant (A) is the daughter of two German immigrants. She was born in Germany, spent time in France, and grew up on the East Coast of the US. She is a college student.

A: “So coffee and cake – Kaffee und Kuchen in German – is basically just a thing German people do sometimes where they get together to drink coffee and eat cake and just like relax and hang out. When I visited my grandparents in Germany we’d do this a lot with them and people they knew, and they’d always just hang out for a while and gossip and stuff while they ate cake. 

Me: That’s so cute! So when and where did you guys do it?

A: It’s usually around early afternoon-ish when people are free; sometimes people would just come over and bring cake and pastries and stuff but there were like cafes that were specifically for coffee and cake where you could sit and hang out for a while. I remember there was one cafe we’d always go to called Cafe Mayer. It closed down a few years ago and we were pretty sad.

Me: Is there any special significance to coffee or cake?

A: Um, I don’t know…I guess a lot of women like it because it’s like…less than a meal. Like, we’ll just drink coffee and eat some cake and it’s not as filling or as an entire meal and it’s less calories I guess.

Me: do you remember what you guys would talk about or anything?

A: I mean anything really, the adults would gossip and just small talk and stuff. It’s super chill.

Context: This was told to me during a recorded in person conversation.